S01 – Geography of Creative Industries: Why do they cluster?

Coordinator: Josep-Maria Arauzo-Carod

This special session will explore the geography of Creative Industries at different spatial levels (regions, metropolitan areas, cities, neighbourhoods, etc.) focusing on their clustering processes and the motivations behind this spatial pattern. The aim of the special session is to promote discussions and exchanges of ideas on recent developments, to analyse availability of datasets, and to promote knowledge flows among all participants. Although all type of contributions are welcome, the session will have a clear empirical approach. In this sense, analyses about effects of Creative Industries over the rest of economic activities will be much appreciated.

S02 – The geography of innovation and knowledge spillovers

Coordinator: Rosina Moreno 

We are thinking in papers focused on innovation and the spatial diffusion of knowledge. Its aim is to bring together researchers in urban and regional economics who are working in topics where the broad concept of the geography of innovation plays a fundamental role. Particular attention will be paid to papers dealing with the mechanisms and actors of knowledge diffusion (knowledge spillovers, networks, technological collaboration, and knowledge relatedness).

S03 – Popular festivals as a factor of territorial resilience

Coordinators: Igone Porto, University of Deusto and Vicente Royuela – University of Barcelona

The process of depopulation in rural Spain is receiving special attention in recent years. The effects of the ‘Empty Spain’ in the balanced development of the territory concern geographers, demographers, sociologists and economists. However, the return of many urbanites to the villages to enjoy popular festivals or unique events is one of the handles of these spaces to resist depopulation. In this special session works that contemplate multiple visions of a phenomenon little studied but that can have a key importance for spaces in decline are welcomed. More than discussing an anthropological vision of certain local festivals, it is expected that this session will discuss the demographic, social and economic impact of these events.

S04 – Spatial flows: towards an empty Spain and a full Spain

Coordinator: Coro Chasco, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and Maite Alguacil Marí, Universitat Jaume I

This special session is focused on understanding the “pull” and “push” factors underlying the location choice of capital, population and transport flows at the local level in the European Union, with special attention to Spain. Additionally, we also propose to quantify the socioeconomic and environmental sustainability effects caused by the concentration or dispersion of people.

S05 – Glocal clusters: critical aspects and new trajectories

Coordinators: Teresa Martínez-Fernández (Universitat Jaume I de Castelló), Manuel Expósito- Langa (Universitat Politècnica de València) y Gloria Parra-Requena (Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha).

Although clusters operate in a global context, local resources continue to be an important driver of their growth and wealth. That is why, despite the attention received in the literature, the interest in his study continues to increase from various academic disciplines. In this way, new research issues appear that require the attention of academics and institutions with the aim of contributing to greater regional economic development. Therefore, through questions such as where research is currently going on clusters, or what challenges clusters face, we intend to discuss critical aspects and new research trajectories in them.

At present, we face the challenge of trying to redefine the relationships between the local and global scale, in such a way that they allow the long-term sustainability of the clusters. Thus, it is necessary to expand our knowledge about these relationships, contributing new ideas from both the academic and professional fields.

Under these premises, this special session aims to bring new ideas to the debate around the clusters, addressing issues such as: What is the resilience of clusters in the face of global changes? What role does the entrepreneur play in these contexts? What is the role of institutions in the evolution of clusters? What should be the interaction of the local and global scale to achieve a greater international projection of the clusters without losing the local anchoring? How can the opportunities influence? of digitization in the sustainability of clusters?

This session aims to be a discussion forum where to discuss these topics of clusters research from a multidisciplinary approach. That is why we invite you to participate in this session, providing theoretical or empirical work (qualitative or quantitative), as well as from different areas of knowledge. Some topics of interest, among others, could be:

• Sustainability and clusters.
• Cluster resilience capacity in response to global changes.
• The opening of the geographic limits of the clusters.
• Cluster and value chain or global value chain.
• Entrepreneurship and clusters.
• The challenge of the digital transformation of the cluster.
• Innovative start-ups and clusters.
• The role of local institutions in the evolution of clusters.
• The presence of clustered multinationals.
• Clusters and developing economies.
• Marketing and clusters.
• Clusters and creativity.
• Family businesses and clusters.
• The cluster from a gender perspective.
• Tourist and cultural clusters.

S06 – Regional institutions and quality of government in European regions

Coordinator: Javier Barbero (European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Seville, Spain)

This special session calls for papers that address issues related to regional institutions, institutional quality, and quality of government in European regions. The effect of institutional quality on economic growth, economic development and trade has been widely studied at country level. However, the quality of institutions differs across regions and this may have a strong impact on their economic and social performance. This session aims to gather papers on the effect of regional institutions on economic growth, economic development, trade, resilience, taxation, and other economic and social phenomena.

S07 – Entrepreneurship and territorial innovations

Coordinators: Catalina Ancuta – Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara (RO), Ana Firmino – University Nova de Lisboa, Ramona Ivan – Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara (RO), Daniel Goeler – University of Bamberg Martine Long – Université d’Angers, Nicolae Popa – University of Timisoara

The specificity of Professor Jean Baptist Humeau is to have had strong intuitions and to have been an innovator. As early as 2011, in a preamble to a seminar organized in Anjou-Val de Loire, he proposed to examine the prospects of territorial renewal and the new paradigms of these “territorial inventions” through the promotion of heritage, sustainable development, well-being,
economic competitiveness, the knowledge economy and the participatory territorial debate. Since then, the need to reinvent territories is becoming more and more important.  It is at the same time in the light of a general questioning of the freedoms in many countries which also touches the local liberties. It is also in terms of contexts or reforms that have changed the territorial organizations (claims of autonomy, territorial reorganizations etc.). It is also so in the face of contradictory injunctions that push for the metropolisation, while privileging the quality of life; economic efficiency while preserving the balance of territories. Inventing new territories, a theme that was the guiding thread of 2H2S, could therefore appear as a generic title that would allow everyone to come together around the contribution of Professor Humeau. Certainly, it will be difficult in a complex organization to define a grammar of territories with intangible rules. However, it will be possible to identify in the various states the elements of recompositions and developments that question the territories.

S08 – Quantitative, Qualitative and Spatial Analysis of Tourism: Bridging the gap among scientific disciplines

Coordinators: Andrés Artal-Tur y Luisa Alamá-Sabater

Tourism is no doubt a multidisciplinary field of study, with research contributions coming from disciplines like Economics, Geography, Sociology, Business or Law Science. In this rich environment, quantitative methods emerged as the basic underlying approach to tourism studies since the 1960s. Robustness of results and the capacity of applying scientific methods have been fostering the use of statistical and econometric models in tourism analysis. Recently, qualitative methods have been introduced as a new research technique helping to extend the scope of tourism analysis. The boom of Big Data and Analytic Tools have contributed to the development of qualitative methods, able to provide new capabilities to mere quantitative research. Moreover, spatial methods combining economic and geographical coordinates in the analysis of tourist behaviour or destination sustainability policies have been also widening the scope of the tourism discipline and research opportunities. According to the last contributions, inter-territorial relations appear key for the development and sustaining conditions of mass tourism destinations, as well as to support the rise of new tourism experiences at more isolated inland destinations for example.

In this session, we want to offer a panorama of all this process of methodological research development in tourism studies. With this aim, we open the session to papers focused on such methods of analysis, namely quantitative, qualitative and spatial methods in tourism research. However, we deserve a special interest for papers combining some of these methods as a way of enriching the study of tourism topics, helping to tend bridges among scientific disciplines and making more visible the interdisciplinary character of the tourism activity.

Keywords: Quantitative, qualitative and spatial analysis of tourism, tourist behaviour, destination sustainability, research methods, multidisciplinary analysis.

S09 – Depopulation strategies: AVANT Chair

Coordinators: José-María García Álvarez-Coque (Universitat Politècnica de València), Javier Esparcia (Universitat de València), Jaime Escribano (Universitat de València), Antonio Martínez Puche (Universitat d’Alacant) y Vicente Budí (Universitat Jaume I)

The proposed session on depopulation strategies aims to host academic study and analysis, proposals for debate and initiatives that contribute to stopping the depopulation process faced by various European territories, the whole of Spain and, particularly, the interior of the Valencia Region. The work will have as a common point the study of areas at risk of depopulation, from different methodological approaches encompassed within regional science.

The AVANT Chair created by the Generalitat Valenciana together with the universities of Alicante, Valencia, Politécnica de Valencia and Jaume I de Castelló intends to develop research activities that lead to action proposals in the face of depopulation.

S10 – Territory and employment

Coordinators: Jorge Hermosilla (Universitat de València), José M. Giner (Universitat d’Alacant) and Juan J. Rubert (Universitat Jaume I)

Linking employment policies with the territory where its will be been development has become an effective instrument, both in identifying unemployed groups and in detecting the training needs demanded by companies.

Simultaneously, this territorialization of employment policies offers a new aspect in terms of development strategies, making it possible to establish plans to promote the activity compatible with the productive fabric and the skills of the workforce.

In the Comunitat Valenciana, these policies are shown through the AVALEM territori program, which has made it possible to identify the representative elements of the local labor markets as a preliminary step to the preparation of employment strategies and projects and the development of economic activity adapted to the particular reality of each territory.

S11 –  Big Data in Regional Science

Coordinator: Fernando A. López, Polytechnic University of Cartagena.

Recent technological advances, the high capacity to store information and the efforts of many governments to open large volumes of information are contributing to the production of an astonishingly large data collection. The analysis of these large volumes of data (Big data) is an emerging topic in Regional Science, causing a strong impact in a wide variety of fields: urban planning, economic geography or transport. This information now allows us to examine urban and regional phenomena in ways that were previously not possible.

Despite the tremendous potential of Big Data for Regional Science, its use and application in this context is plagued by problems and challenges but everything points to its great relevance in the near future. In this special session, researchers interested in the topic of ‘Big data in Regional Science’ are invited to present and discuss their methodological and applied contributions.

S12 -Spatial point process and spatial networks

Coordinator: Fernando A. López, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena

In the field of Space Econometrics it is increasingly common to have georeferenced information at the point level. The analysis of these systems (spatial point process) allows us to examine urban phenomena in a way that to date has not been possible, analyzing individual to individual their behavior, their movement patterns or their interactions. These systems form spatial networks whose analysis can offer a new perspective since the underlying space is the network space where the Euclidean distance is not always determinant of the relations between individuals or observations. One of the main challenges in the science of spatial network data is to account for the structure of the network in the data set.

In this special session we invite researchers in Regional Science to present their contributions on the topic of spatial point proces and spatial networks.

S13 – Recent Trends in Regional Socio-Economic Inequalities and their Consequences

Coordinators: Andre Carrascal-Incera, Diana Gutierrez-Posada, Raquel Ortega-Argiles

The last years, in Europe and other parts of the developed world, have experienced greater increases in socio-economic spatial disparities. The recession and other global challenges such as automation or globalisation have made that some industrial areas suffered important declines in employment and income distribution. While, more diversified service- oriented urban areas have been able to maintain their growth pace. Migration has intensively contributed to change labour market landscape in many different European regions, contributing to economic development but also increasing within regional disparities. Although some studies have addressed income inequality and poverty in the EU linked with globalisation and migration, still a knowledge gap remains concerning the analysis of these topics at a more disaggregated level and their main consequences.

The aim of this special session is to promote discussion around the main topics behind regional socio-economic inequality, such as the recent trends linking inequality with digitalisation, automation, but also considering the effects of migration, globalization and offshoring, differences in skill composition and the level of job polarization, political devolution, and demographic patterns and migration, among the most significant ones.

Submissions based on evidence from different parts of the world are welcome either of a theoretical or empirical nature and either at the regional and urban level.

S14 – Input-output and general equilibrium models for the analysis of the environmental sustainability of the regions

Coordinators: Luis Antonio López Santiago (University of Castilla-La Mancha), Ana Serrano González (University of Zaragoza), Alberto Franco Solís (University of Extremadura)

Input-output models and general equilibrium models (CGE) have become adequate tools to assess the environmental impact associated with economic activity, allowing to assess the effects that different mitigation policies can generate along the chains of production and, consequently, throughout the economic system.

In the context of the multi-regional input-output framework, the consumer-based allocation criterion allows us to trace the effects that the final demand of the economy has on the entire planet, by tracking them along the global chain of production. From the point of view of the environment, this methodology is adequate to quantify the impacts in terms of carbon, water, energy, loss of biodiversity, etc. From the perspective of the regional economy, input-output modeling represents a powerful research tool to spatially locate environmental impacts, to identify the responsibilities of pressures on the natural environment, as well as to analyze the interdependencies between different geographical and administrative entities. . In this sense, this type of studies not only allows evaluating the effects that the countries have, but also progressively integrates the decisions taken in the regions and even in the cities, approaching both the regional economy and the urban economy. Other works are investigating the effects that household consumption, based on its characteristics or changes in consumption patterns, has on environmental sustainability. The importance of leakages via international trade, the role of different types of companies and their heterogeneity, changes in the mix of electricity, the identification of key sectors in the transmission of emissions, or policies to promote renewables are other aspects which are being studied using input-output and general equilibrium models. Specifically, the existence of certain specific properties (introduction of an endogenous price system, substitutability in production and consumption functions, and an optimizing behavior of economic agents) to the general equilibrium models, allows an immediate analysis of other issues such as the effects of the introduction of prices on carbon, the implementation of certain environmental taxes, the impact on natural resources of technological changes or the establishment of a water market. In this way, this special session aims to be a forum in which to present and discuss works that, from the approach of the input-output and general equilibrium models, deal with aspects related to the sustainable development of the different regions of the planet.

S15 – Regional and local development in Colombia

Coordinators: Emili Tortosa Auxina y Jesus Peiro Palomino

Development issues are of great importance, especially in developing economies such as Colombia. This session welcomes papers focused on the regional and local Colombian context from a broad perspective, including more general topics such as economic growth and convergence trends, and more specific areas such as well-being, its determinants and the efficiency of public institutions.

S16 – Regional values and perceptions on the European integration process

Coordinators: Jorge Díaz Lanchas (JRC- European Commission), Filippo di Pietro (JRC- European Commission)

 

A new wave of social discontent is challenging the European integration process. Multiple causes have been raised to explain the new wave of social misalignment with the European integration process. Going from economic-decline and inequality explanations to perceptions and cultural values theories, several works have put their efforts in disentangling the determinants leading this current European integration backslash. Up to now the debate is far from being closed, but what is clear is that this social respond presents a spatial pattern in which lagging-behind regions become the geographical source of this trend.

 

The aim of this session is to raise a scientific debate on the regional and individual perceptions that are shaping the preferences toward the European integration process. The session covers either theoretical or empirical works attending to different branches of the literature on individual preferences towards the EU, especially those focused on regional differences, urban-rural dichotomies and the territorial impacts of social media. No only research articles based on evidence from the European regions, but also from different  parts of the world, are welcome.

S17 – Accessibility to housing in Spain. Problems and solutions

Coordinator: Paloma Taltavull of La Paz

Housing prices are at the center of the debate in Spain regarding their responsibility in the difficulties of accessibility of housing for young households. It is argued that prices are rising and this undermines the ability of these households to meet their residential needs (primary need) and, therefore, it is necessary to take measures to ensure that this does not happen.

Although this problem was known, the financial crisis has exacerbated it. The lack of affordability is combined with housing evictions resulting from the economic crisis, which aggravates the problem and confuses it, complicating the identification of (lack of) accessibility as a key issue affecting the residential market.

The difficulties to acquire a home are the result of substantial changes in the residential markets closely related to the post-crisis period, but which also existed before. This problem generates serious short-term social imbalances, such as extreme poverty and exclusion, the delay in the formation of homes, unemployment, migration, child poverty and health problems.

In Spain these reflections have not been carried out, at least in the field of research. The more generalized argument that justifies the lack of affordability focuses on high prices, which leads to the need for regulation (insignificant from an economic point of view) and control. The reason for this situation is combined with the lack of understanding of the mechanisms that lead the housing markets and the lack of statistical information, as well as a lack of research in this sector that is reduced to very different issues related to housing without a global vision

In this special session the works that analyze the causes and consequences of the lack of accessibility to a home are called.

S18 – Regional GDP in Latin America in the long run

Coordinators: Daniel A. Tirado-Fabregat (UV) y Marc Badia-Miró, (UB)

 

In recent years, research on the regional economics in the long run has received special attention, in particular within European and other developed countries. Many of the results have shown that the present-day economic geography of Europe and the USA is the result of a long and complex process in which both economic and historical forces have played their role. In this context, and despite many changes taking place since 1850, there are more continuities than changes in the economic regional configuration. Therefore, we argue that there are deep underlying forces explaining contemporaneous regional inequality and we emphasize those associated to institutional backgrounds and geographical characteristics. The most basic forces are related to initial factors and resource endowments (Heckscher-Ohlin model) while at a second level we find forces arising from the evolution of market potential and agglomeration economies (New Economic Geography). The interaction of all these components takes place in a context with important variations in transportation costs and the degree of international and interregional economic integration. New research with the focus on Latin America has the potential not only to provide a new perspective on the economic development of these regions but also to offer new insights on how those forces interact in the non-core, peripheral countries. In that sense, natural resources location, industrial backwardness in the most of these countries and areas with low population density leads us to a new set of questions and tentative answers.

S19 – Economic crisis and financial exclusion: implications for regional development

Coordinator: Emili Tortosa Auxina

The financial crisis that began in 2007 soon translated into a deep economic crisis from which some countries are just exiting and whose impact on some sectors is still profound. One of them is the financial and banking sector, and one of the consequences has been the sharp drop in the number of bank branches, a phenomenon whose impact on regional and local development can be significant, ultimately increasing the risk of financial exclusion for some communities.

Therefore, the objective of this session is to raise different points of view on this reality that has been occurring since 2008, which has been accentuated by the technological changes that affect the banking sector. Also, the session might also be of interest for studies based on other contexts, given the phenomenon of financial inclusion is of paramount importance.

 

S20 – Regions and internationalization

Coordinator: Juan de Lucio

This session on applied economics will be devoted to the presentation of articles that analyze the territorial dimension of foreign trade and other aspects of the internationalization of a region. Therefore, issues related to trade in goods, services, foreign direct investment, migrations, as well as other aspects related to the international dimension of regions of various kinds, such as the impact of free trade agreements, global cities or the regionalization of global value chains. Of special interest are the works that address the processes of incipient transformation in export clusters.